Hello palaeofolks!

 

My name is Gustavo, but I'm also known by my nicknames, "Peninha" ("Little Feather") or "Codorna" ("Quail"). I have a degree in Geography (Salesian University Center of São Paulo) and in Teaching of Sciences (University of São Paulo/UNIVESP). Since 2003, I have been dedicating most of my time, studying themes of Geosciences and Human Sciences, such as Archaeology, Physical Geogragphy, Geology, and Palaeontology. I also have expertise in teaching sciences, where I have been working with Geography and Science classes.

 

My relationship with palaeontology goes back to my childhood. As a kid, I was very interested in themes of this Science. My focus was drawn mainly by Dinosaurs, Ice Age faunas, Trilobites, Ichnology, and Human evolution. But my life begun to change when I entered into the Archaeology world. There, I learned a plenty of things about man and its relative matters. Although, it was only in 2012, when I started an internship in the Workshop of Replicas (Oficina de Réplicas) of the Laboratory of Systematic Palaeontology of the Institute of Geosciences (Instituto de Geociências) of the University of São Paulo (IGc-USP), that my life in Palaeontology started solidly.

 

In 2013, in IGc-USP, I had the opportunity to start the project with taphonomy of the fossil feathers from the Cretaceous of the Crato Formation (Araripe Basin, NE-Brazil) and Paleogene of the Tremembé Formation (Taubaté Basin, SE-Brazil). At that time it was the only project in the country concerning the taphonomy of fossil feathers. As undergraduate researcher, this project was supervised by Dr. Luiz Eduardo Anelli of the Department of Environmental and  Sedimentary Geology of the Institute of Geosciences of the University of São Paulo (DGSA/IGc-USP).

 

As I also became interested in fossilized biochromes, this project had partnership with other researchers, institutions and laboratories; such as Astrobiology Laboratory of the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of São Paulo (Astrolab/IAG-USP); Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory and Nanotechnology Laboratory, both from the National Research Center in Energy and Materials (LNLS-CNPEM, LNNano-CNPEM); Institute of Physics and Institute of Chemistry, both of the University of São Paulo (IF-USP, IQ-USP); the National Center for Imaging Mass Spectrometry do SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden (NCIMS-SPTRIS) in Borås, Sweden; and, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University College Cork (SBEES-UCC), in Cork, Ireland.

 

In October of the same year (2013), in Gramado-RS, my research, which was initially focused on systematics, received by my peers the prize of "Best Work in the PaleoVertebrate section", which it concurred alongside with Masters, Doctorates, Post-Docs students; as well as Professional Palaeontologists. This prize encouraged me to keep working, trying to expand the research to matters such as Palaeobiology and Taphonomy.

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In late 2014, I started to work with ancient pigmentation, trying to understand the palaeoecology of the feather owners. Thus, I started to investigate this theme (fossil biochromes) aiming on the characteristics and distinctions between melanosomes and microbes, looking for the taphonomic processes involved in the preservations of these brazilian fossils.

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As a Master's Degree student, I continued to work with these fossils, trying to uncover the preservational pathways that allowed these structures to be conserved. Now, as a PhD candidate, I'm expanding the previous project to several other specimens, but only from Crato Formation, focusing mainly on the molecular taphonomy and the identification of putative preserved biochromes and pigment-related ultrastructures.

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I think that's pretty much about me. I hope we'll see in the next palaeontological event!

 

Cheers mates!

 

GP